Main menu

Tag Archives: Jazz n’ Family Fun Days

Post navigation

On June 6 and 7, almost 6,000 visitors attended Jazz n’ Families Fun Days, the Phillips’s annual family festival in partnership with DC Jazz Festival. Families decorated maracas, listened to live jazz music, played instruments, and joined gallery tours. In preparation for this big event, Phillips Education staff spent the last couple months collecting thousands of water bottles and toilet-paper rolls for the Family Fun art project – musical maracas! Check out these before and after photographs showing the innovative and creative ways visitors transformed recyclable materials into instruments that were as artistic as they were musical.

Before:

View from above the mass of recycled water bottles during preparation for Jazz n’ Families Fun Days. Photo: Hayley Prihoda

The expansive assortment of recyclable goods collected by the staff. Photo: Hayley Prihoda

After:

Young visitors showing off their wonderful creations. Photo: Joshua Navarro

With two young children, I don’t have a lot of time to participate as fully as I’d like to in the annual DC Jazz Festival, but I always look forward to bringing my family to Jazz ‘n Families Fun Days! The Phillips bustles with activities—musical performances, gallery talks, storytelling, and art workshops. This year, my son loved the instrument petting zoo, where he got to see, hear, and try out a variety of instruments, including the trumpet and trombone.